Subu Ramakrishnan, Sr. Director, Technical Architecture & Delivery, BTM Global
The holiday season is an exciting and vital period for retailers, offering significant opportunities for growth. Since COVID, the traditional holiday shopping timeline has shifted dramatically. The days when holiday shopping would kick off right after Thanksgiving are long gone. Today, many consumers begin hunting for deals months before Thanksgiving, prompting retailers to adapt their strategies accordingly.
In today’s article, you’ll learn:
● When retailers should begin planning for the holidays
● What operational and system-related tasks are crucial to prioritize
● BTM Global’s holiday preparation checklist
● How using a software integrator can help set you up for success
When Should Retailers Begin Planning for the Holiday Season?
Holiday planning now requires both store operational and IT teams to collaborate well in advance to ensure readiness. Most retailers enforce an IT code freeze by the end of October. An IT code freeze means that no changes or non-critical updates are made to systems to stabilize reliability during the holiday season. This means that retailers and IT teams need to start preparing well in advance – say as early as June.
The planning process involves formulating detailed plans, communicating with business stakeholders, collaborating with IT to create application changes bundled and thoroughly test in staging environments, and ensuring all necessary changes are pushed to production before the code freeze.
What Tasks Should Retailers Prioritize for the Holiday Season?
Retailers must focus on critical business operations, such as IT infrastructure, and point-of-sale (POS) security enhancements to safeguard their business and ensure a successful holiday season. We’ve highlighted a few of these priorities below.
1. Forecast demand
From a business perspective, retailers must accurately forecast demand and ensure optimal stock levels across all channels, including physical stores, e-commerce websites, and third-party marketplaces.
With the rise of online shopping following COVID, many customers prefer options like buying online and picking up in-store (BOPIS) or shipping directly to their homes. To accommodate this, retailers must prioritize real-time inventory synchronization across systems, providing accurate stock information to prevent overselling or stock shortages.
2. Stabilize your POS and production environment
Stabilizing the production environment is critical for handling the increased volume during the holiday season. Retailers should ensure that their POS systems, such as Oracle Retail Xstore, are secure and robust enough to manage the increased demand and order volume, with extra or backup registers or tablets deployed as needed.
Customers expect a variety of payment options, so it’s essential to support multiple payment methods to enhance the user’s shopping experience. IT teams should evaluate and integrate widely used payment solutions that offer 24/7 business support to ensure seamless transactions across all platforms. Offering multiple payment options can significantly impact various aspects of the customer journey, resulting in favorable outcomes for retailers.
3. Operational planning
To meet the surge in customer traffic, retailers should plan for additional staffing and lock down any POS and system integration changes before the holiday rush.
Any non-essential updates or changes should be delayed until after the season to avoid disruptions during peak sales periods. By prioritizing these key areas, retailers can be well-prepared for a busy holiday season.
BTM Global’s Holiday Checklist for Retailers
BTM Global brings over 20 years of expertise in implementing POS systems, payment solutions, and system integrations. Leveraging our extensive knowledge, we collaborate with customers annually to provide key insights, guidance, and address business needs for the holiday season.
Our comprehensive checklist below covers critical areas, including:
Xstore/POS readiness: ensure your POS environment is optimized to handle high transaction volumes and remains fully functional while in offline mode.
Key integration points: review crucial system integrations to ensure seamless operations throughout the holiday period.
Operational and data requirements: identify and prepare the necessary operational and data needs to meet customer demand.
Alerts and monitoring: establish effective monitoring and alert systems to address critical issues quickly.
BTM Global tailors this checklist to align with the unique business demands of each customer, guiding them through the process to ensure they’re fully prepared for the holiday season. What sets BTM Global’s checklist apart is its focus not only on the holiday rush but also on the post-holiday period, helping retailers manage the January surge effectively.
How a Software Integrator like BTM Global Can Safeguard You for the Holiday Season
Many retailers face the challenge of not having a fully equipped IT team to manage and support their POS systems, especially when planning for the high-demand holiday season. Some may assume everything will function smoothly or may lack a deep understanding of how critical POS integrations work—such as how applications communicate, how certificates are configured, or where to verify if certificates are valid. For instance, if a certificate expires, it can cause major integration failures, disrupting data flow and severely impacting business operations.
This is where a software integrator (SI) like BTM Global becomes your best friend. We can assess your environment, identify potential risks, and prioritize critical tasks. BTM Global conducts in-depth sessions to understand your specific setup and offer tailored guidance on what needs attention before the holiday season.
By working with an SI, retailers can ensure their systems are robust, secure, and prepared to handle the holiday surge without any unnecessary or unexpected disruptions.
What Retailers Often Overlook When Preparing for the Holidays and How to Fix It
Retailers often focus on preparing their internal systems for increased holiday traffic and may overlook checking whether their integration partners are equally equipped to handle the surge in volume, such as your third-party payment gateway, POS, or inventory management tools. Ensuring that third-party systems are ready is just as crucial as optimizing your own.
Additionally, retailers should prioritize offline capabilities to ensure seamless operations during any potential system outages. By implementing a monitoring and alert system, businesses can quickly identify and address issues before they escalate, supporting smooth business operations throughout the holiday season.
Stay Secure and Stress-Free
With decades of experience, BTM Global’s team of experts can identify vulnerabilities in your business and can quickly implement long-term solutions to prepare you for the holiday season and grow your business long-term. Start planning ahead and contact us to schedule a meeting today!
